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10
Writer. @ University of Ibadan.
A Language Called Home.
<p><br/></p><p>Ọmọ Yorùbá atata ni mi. Yorùbá dùn ó yẹ kí a máa gbé e lárugẹ. Ṣùgbọ́n lónìí, ó ti di ohun tí a fẹrẹ̀ máa tì sílẹ̀.</p><p><br/></p><p>We are a people caught between two mirrors, striving to become like others while slowly losing the language that first named our world. Our mother tongues are reduced to mere “vernacular,” sometimes even punished, not only in schools but quietly discouraged in our own homes. Some parents fear that speaking our native language makes us appear local, so they urge us toward foreign tongues, hoping we will resemble the "oyinbo". But language does not diminish us... it reveals us.</p><p><br/></p><p>Èdè wa ni ìdánimọ̀ wa. Nínú rẹ̀ ni ìtàn wa, ìmọ̀ wa, àti ẹ̀mí àṣà wa wà.</p><p><br/></p><p>They say, "Agbà kì í wà lọ́jà kí orí ọmọ tuntun wó." Yet today, it seems the wisdom of our elders is fading, and the foundation they laid trembles. Speaking our mother tongue does not prevent us from learning foreign languages; it simply roots us. Multilingualism is strength... but forgetting one’s origin is loss.</p><p>The more fluent we become in foreign languages alone, the more unfamiliar our own voices sound to us. A whole cultural heritage is quietly slipping away, not through force, but through neglect.</p><p><br/></p><p>Ọmọ tí a kò kọ́, ni yóò gbé ilé tí a kọ́ tà. If we abandon our language, we abandon memory itself.</p><p>Let us not treat our mother tongue as a relic, but as a living inheritance. Let us speak it, teach it, celebrate it... in our homes, in our thoughts, in our pride. For when a language lives, a people remain whole.</p><p><br/></p><p>Ó ṣeun.</p><p>Ohun tí Ọlọ́run fún wa, ká má ṣe fi sílẹ̀. Èdè wa ni ìye wa.</p><p><br/></p><p>Let us embrace our mother tongue,it is more than just words... it is memory, culture, and identity woven into every syllable. To abandon it for acceptance or convenience is to forget ourselves. Let us speak it proudly, teach it boldly, and pass it to the coming generation. For when a language lives, a people live fully... rooted and built in who they are, even as they reach for the world.</p><p><br/></p><p>~Eliza's pen.</p>
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International Mother Language Day
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